The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-06-18
THE INSANE ASYLUM BOARD.


the command of the executive but of the
will of the people of Indiana, the men removed
still assume to perform the duties of the
Offices which they have dishonored, and con-
tinue to exercise over the stricken victims of
madness that management and control which
has long been blot upon our State.
These men have filled the asylum with their
| political henchmen for partisan purposes.
| They have purchased legislative influence by
wholesale nepotism. They have established
sinecures, have paid excessive wages to politi-
cal favorites and reduced to system the
traffic for place. They have permitted and
encouraged political activity, electioneering,
the raising of campaign funds, the formation
of political clubs, the candidacy of employees
and their attendance at political conventions
thus impairing the efficiency of the service,
| and diverting funds of the whole people to
! party purposes in consideration for political
work. They have SO conducted the asylum
| that 64S changes had to be made in less than
| four years by reason of the unfitness and
| incompetency of their employees. They have
less, brutal attendants, by whom one patient
was willfully suffered to escape, by whose
negligence others were killed, and by whose
cruelty many of these helpless beings were
Systematically beaten. tormented and abused.
Under their administration hogs were killed
for the tables of the patients out of drove
dying from a malignant and contagious
disease; oleomargarine, rancid and maggoty
butter, decayed and wormy apples peaches
and prunes, bad bread and coffee, rice, fish,
pork, cheese and other articles unfit to eat,
were furnished and supplied to the insane,
while food better in quality and greater in va
riety was placed upon the tables of the officers.
They caused goods to be accepted by the
hospital which were not according to contract.
and which were unfit for use, because such
goods were furnished by contractors who were
their personal and political friends.
AS trustees of the Insane Hospital they
fraudulently allowed claim of $500, ordering
it to be paid out of the State funds of which
they were trustees, to C. S. Wesner, an attor-
ney employed in defense of their ubiquitous
management before the committee of the
House of Representatives.
After their misdoings had been exposed,
they procured the appointment of commit
tee by the Senate for the purpose of exonerat-
ing themselves from their guilty response
bility for these abuses. The investigation
into their conduct was taken away from the
committee benevolent institutions, to
which it properly belonged, and consigned to
special committee appointed by Green
Smith. personal beneficiary of the present
corrupt system of party management This
committee was composed in part of other
benefciaries of the system, among whom was
a relative of one of the members of the board
of trustees and majority of the committee
were the devoted political adherents of the
board.
They selected as the fit instrument for their
defense before said committee one Henry N
Span, an attorney then under charge of connec-
ton with the fraudulent alteration of election
returns, and now under indictment for crimes
committed in connection Herewith. They
corruptly procured the appointment of this
their own attorney as the attorney of the
Senate committee, who were their Judges
and thus caused him not only to assume in
consistent duties, but to be illegally allowed
the sum of 5000 out of the moneys belonging
to the State for services performed in their
behalf.
By their said attorney there was drawn up
and prepared a pretended report and finding
of facts, filed with falsehoods and misstate-
ments of every kind, which paper was signed
by the chairman and adopted by their polit-
ical associates in the Senate, and published
as a correct statement of their administration
of the hospital
Mr.. Gapen abandoned his duties for year
as trustee to engage in business in a distant
State, and yet demanded and received salary
for services which were never performed, out
of fund which was not applicable to such
purpose. AS treasurer of the asylum he re-
ceived from Mellen g. Co. a rebate upon the
purchase money of goods sold by that firm,
which rebate never accounted for, but,
when detected, he falsely charged that the sum
had been appropriated by DIR. Fletcher, an
innocent man who had never received the
money. According to his testmony!he
was in the habit, as treasurer of the board, of
paying out money without taking receipts
therefor and he enormously paid out funds of
the State for debts which had already been
paid in full Even after the investigation
conducted by the last General Assembly he
continued to abandon his duties as trustee
and treasurer of the board to prosecute his
private business in Arkansas, and continued
to draw pay for services which he neglected
to perform.
DIR. Harrison, president of the benevolent